Articles by Don Phipps

Album Review

Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite

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by Don Phipps
January 23, 2026

Kris Davis's The Solastalgia Suite is a towering achievement. Straddling the diverse worlds of modern classical and jazz idioms, Davis, already a notable heavyweight on the jazz scene, has moved to another level, the emergence of a kind of beyond jazz. Here, teamed with the Lutoslawski Quartet--Roksana Kwasnikowska (1st violin), Marcin Markowicz (2nd violin), Artur Rozmysłowicz (viola), and Maciej Młodawski (cello)--Davis brings her skills as a composer and pianist to eight tracks of challenging, sublime, chaotic but controlled beauty and ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman and Wadada Leo Smith: Duologues 5

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by Don Phipps
January 20, 2026

In the decade of the 2020s, the prolific tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman has recorded several improvised duet recordings with such jazz luminaries as trumpeter Nate Wooley, trombonist Ray Anderson, drummer/pianist Tyshawn Sorey, fellow tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, drummer Tom Rainey, and pianist Matthew Shipp. Even more incredible is that over the same timeframe, he has done several group improv recordings--for example, a trio with bassist Barry Guy and drummer Ramón López, a quartet with saxophonist Chad Fowler, bassist Reggie Workman, ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman/Nate Wooley: Polarity 4

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by Don Phipps
January 19, 2026

On Polarity 4, their fourth album of collaborative improvisations, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley create a diverse array of soundscapes. The spontaneous compositions exhibit fluid, arcing energy that skips around like a hummingbird darting towards clusters of brightly colored rhododendron blooms. Both musicians demonstrate their trademark virtuosity: Perelman with his supreme embouchure control, and Wooley with his diverse and challenging mouthpiece manipulations. The album consists of nine improvisations--each consisting of unique twists and turns and ...

Album Review

Sinsuki Fujieda Group: Fukushima

by Don Phipps
January 11, 2026

Sinsuke Fujieda's straightforward jazz album Fukushima offers up some enjoyable and tantalizing moments but ultimately suffers from repetitive arrangements and the limited range of his side musicians. Jazz is a music that rewards experimentation and adventure, but on Fujieda's nine compositions, he and his band stick with a “been there, done that" approach that by the album's end seems threadbare. Fujieda plays tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and clarinet. His explorations on the four instruments reveal a professional ...

Album Review

Otherlands Trio with Stephan Crump, Darius Jones, Eric McPherson: Star Mountain

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by Don Phipps
January 5, 2026

The Otherlands Trio's Star Mountain presents five cerebral improvisations that unfold along abstract lines, utilizing staggered syncopation that seamlessly blends with nuanced passages, both soft and loud. The album feels at times like it will break into something more freewheeling, but the musicians instead choose patient moves that deliver creative phrases filled with unexpected twists and turns. This is the first outing by the trio comprised of Stephan Crump (bass), Darius Jones (alto sax) and Eric McPherson (drums), ...

Album Review

Amaika Rude: The Ska and the Abstract Truth

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by Don Phipps
January 2, 2026

A remake of a classic and fun to boot! Amaika Rude's album, The Ska and the Abstract Truth, evokes happy head nodding to the tunes found on Oliver Nelson's masterpiece Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse 1961). The original album, released in February 1961, featured Nelson on saxophone and included such jazz luminaries as Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Roy Haynes. With a lineup like that, is it any wonder why many jazz publications have given ...

Album Review

The Alex Levin Trio: A Sunday Kind of Love

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by Don Phipps
January 27, 2020

There is a dinner jazz quality to A Sunday Kind of Love by the Alex Levin Trio. And even though there is no pretense of art here, the infectious happiness of the album would certainly destress anyone who has had a rough day. Pianist Levin composed five of the ten numbers on the album, and he is accompanied by the spry playing of bassist Phil Rowan and drummer Ben Cliness. In addition to originals, the album covers standards. ...

Album Review

Simon Vincent's The Occasional Trio: Live In Berlin

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by Don Phipps
January 23, 2020

Released on his own Vision Of Sound label, pianist and composer Simon Vincent's Live in Berlin is a collection of live recordings from two shows in 2018 and 2019 at the Schlot Jazz Club, Berlin, Germany. In the liner notes, Vincent acknowledges the risks of live performance recordings, but at the same time, he states in the liner notes with conviction that: “The studio gives you the possibility to concentrate on details, but you may lose a certain spontaneity, whereas ...

Album Review

Masa Ishikawa: Dialogue

by Don Phipps
January 22, 2020

The happy set of ten originals Masa Ishikawa composed for his album Dialogue suggests a budding talent. A visiting professor of jazz at the University of Iowa, Ishikawa, along with his bandmates, demonstrates a precise and light touch, where bluesy readings have just the right sense of playfulness. Born in Fukushima, Japan, Ishikawa teams up on this session with vibraphonist Christopher Varga, who has played with such notables as Terrence Blanchard and the late Jay McShann, bassist Eric ...

Album Review

John Abercrombie and Don Thompson: Yesterdays

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by Don Phipps
January 21, 2020

The late John Abercrombie's outstanding and extensive recorded legacy includes two duet albums with fellow guitarist Ralph Towner, Sargasso Sea (ECM 2008) and Five Years Later (ECM, 2014), four Gateway trio albums (with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette), and three Baseline Trio albums (with bassist Hein Van de Geyn and drummer Joe LaBarbera). Like those albums, Yesterdays finds him at his guitar-picking best, collaborating on this one with bassist Don Thompson. Recorded live in 1992 at ...